Comments on: HTPC http://yamahito.net/blog/2007/03/14/htpc/ Tomos Hillman's mind-dump. Fri, 10 Sep 2010 08:41:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: SilentBob http://yamahito.net/blog/2007/03/14/htpc/#comment-61 Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:30:57 +0000 http://yamahito.net/blog/2007/03/14/htpc/#comment-61 I may have to buy them off you in a few weeks time ;) I may have to buy them off you in a few weeks time ;)

]]> by: Minotaur http://yamahito.net/blog/2007/03/14/htpc/#comment-56 Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:32:32 +0000 http://yamahito.net/blog/2007/03/14/htpc/#comment-56 (shameless sales plug) SB, if you want some silentdrive enclosures I have a spare pair of 'em sitting here doing nothing (/shameless sales plug) I've always found Myth very interesting, and would dearly love to find the time to explore it properly. Some of its multicasting functions look absolutely superb for Video-on-Demand environments (hotels, B&Bs, anime conventions, etc.). However, the sad reailty is that my TV machine needs to just work, even if not 100% perfectly. I'm currently running WinXP + MediaPortal + Zoom Player. It works with most things, it's not 100% stable, but MediaPortal's never had the best quality checking out there. (shameless sales plug)
SB, if you want some silentdrive enclosures I have a spare pair of ‘em sitting here doing nothing
(/shameless sales plug)

I’ve always found Myth very interesting, and would dearly love to find the time to explore it properly. Some of its multicasting functions look absolutely superb for Video-on-Demand environments (hotels, B&Bs, anime conventions, etc.). However, the sad reailty is that my TV machine needs to just work, even if not 100% perfectly. I’m currently running WinXP + MediaPortal + Zoom Player. It works with most things, it’s not 100% stable, but MediaPortal’s never had the best quality checking out there.

]]> by: SilentBob http://yamahito.net/blog/2007/03/14/htpc/#comment-42 Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:04:45 +0000 http://yamahito.net/blog/2007/03/14/htpc/#comment-42 I only know people that have used MythTV. It's not always worked perfectly for them to begin with, but I gather it can be quite powerful once up and running (on the downside, if the box fails, you lose access to everything that'd normally entertain you). I think everyone I know has stored stuff locally, as they don't own fileservers (like us). It'll be interesting to see how you get on with Geexbox, if you can get it to work with network drives then a system without a hard disk would be an interesting idea. My two Core 2 Duo machines are insanely quiet, the loudest parts are the hard disks when they access data. One day I'll get around to putting my main machine's disk into a "Silent Drive" enclosure. Perhaps I'll do it when I upgrade the fileserver, as I will have several spare hard disks afterwards that are a good spec. The idea is to put a TV card into my main machine sometime and make it into a HTPC too, but one that I can also use for gaming and for general day-to-day usage. I would have suggested buying and using Vista's Media Center (Home Premium/Ultimate), but it still doesn't support MPEG-4 playback! This means you can't watch local XviD/DivX content, although you can transcode it with a few third party tools, but the couple I've tried have complained bitterly when trying to stream off a fileserver (one kept telling me the service had to be changed to one that could access the remote files, even though I'd already done that). So if you're doing a lot of MPEG-4 content, I'd say that Linux is your best bet. Yes, a Windows fan telling people to go with Linux. It doesn't happen often. Do you plan on building one from scratch, with brand new components? And a nice shiny HTPC case? I still think you should finally buy yourself a TFT ;) If you put a SNES emulator on, I might have to hook up my SNES and get some practice in! I only know people that have used MythTV. It’s not always worked perfectly for them to begin with, but I gather it can be quite powerful once up and running (on the downside, if the box fails, you lose access to everything that’d normally entertain you). I think everyone I know has stored stuff locally, as they don’t own fileservers (like us). It’ll be interesting to see how you get on with Geexbox, if you can get it to work with network drives then a system without a hard disk would be an interesting idea. My two Core 2 Duo machines are insanely quiet, the loudest parts are the hard disks when they access data. One day I’ll get around to putting my main machine’s disk into a “Silent Drive” enclosure. Perhaps I’ll do it when I upgrade the fileserver, as I will have several spare hard disks afterwards that are a good spec. The idea is to put a TV card into my main machine sometime and make it into a HTPC too, but one that I can also use for gaming and for general day-to-day usage.

I would have suggested buying and using Vista’s Media Center (Home Premium/Ultimate), but it still doesn’t support MPEG-4 playback! This means you can’t watch local XviD/DivX content, although you can transcode it with a few third party tools, but the couple I’ve tried have complained bitterly when trying to stream off a fileserver (one kept telling me the service had to be changed to one that could access the remote files, even though I’d already done that). So if you’re doing a lot of MPEG-4 content, I’d say that Linux is your best bet. Yes, a Windows fan telling people to go with Linux. It doesn’t happen often.

Do you plan on building one from scratch, with brand new components? And a nice shiny HTPC case? I still think you should finally buy yourself a TFT ;)

If you put a SNES emulator on, I might have to hook up my SNES and get some practice in!

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